1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for managing and controlling manufacturing products. More specifically, the invention relates to a management system for the manufacture of products assembled using a plurality of component parts, which concentrically controls production processes and allows automated production in a unified manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
The present invention is directed to production including intermediate components, called "parts", assembled with a plurality of elementary parts, elements and so forth, semifinal products and completed final products composed of a plurality of parts, such as exchanges or switchboards and so forth, or components of the final products, such as shelves, frames of the exchanges and so forth.
It should be noted that the application of management of manufacturing according to the invention is not limited to the field listed above but can be applied to a variety of fields. However, the present invention is particularly applicable for manufacturing lines, in which parts or arrangement of parts and so forth are frequently changed owing to demand of the customer, and for the production processes having complicated production line constructions causing problems in overall management.
One of the typical fields involved in such fields is the field of communication equipment or facilities. Therefore, the following discussion will concern the field of communication principally related to exchanges.
In the manufacturing industry of communication equipment and facilities, there are a number of combinations of components and installation conditions depending upon the difference in communication systems in various countries and/or of demanded options of the customers. Therefore, it is necessary to make installation designs corresponding to orders from different customers. On the other hand, it is sometimes necessary to add a function or increase the number of channels and so forth in response to demands from the customers, even after shipping the products. For appropriately responding to such requests from the customers, it is necessary to maintain accurate hysteresis information on the respective equipment and/or facilities. For this, it is highly desirable to establish a production management system to facilitate the management of hysteresis information on the respective communication equipment and/or facilities.
For example, a discussion will be given on the production of printed circuit boards (PCBs) of electronic circuits means on each of which a plurality of parts are installed, and for the production of shelves installing a variety of the electronic circuit printed boards (PCB), i.e., a printed circuit board, and the construction of exchanges forming device frames consisting of shelves assembled in different construction.
FIG. 1 is an explanatory illustration showing a process for installation designing for respective customers in the prior art, FIG. 2 is an explanatory illustration showing a method of collection of information of production, inspection and production history of the prior art, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory illustration showing the conventional method for managing information related to already installed equipment.
As shown in FIG. 1, during installation designing for equipment adapting to demands from customers in the prior art, order sheets (b) are prepared based on information of estimate and order. Also, by a CAD system (computer aided designing system), hardcopy output containing a parts preparation list, installation drawings and constructional information (d) based on parts preparation information, basic installation information (c), and so forth. According to order sheet b and the parts preparation list, installation drawings and constructional information (d), designers manually perform a designing operation f by confirming each item and checking conditions (h) using their own knowledge as know-how and/or manuals and thus prepare drawings g for components installation, including production processes, facility designs and so forth. For such operation, it is required to perform a comparative check of a number of components or equipment, checking against the installation drawings. Therefore, a substantial number of designing steps is required to make said operation a cost and labor intensive operation.
As shown in FIG. 2, in the prior art, a production process is performed by delivering electronic circuit printed board units (PKGs) (a) and/or shelves (SH: components to be installed in the unit) (b) for a unit of equipment ordered the customer, and by distributing the delivered electronic circuit board units and/or the shelves for installation on respective electronic circuit printed board units of the equipment. In such a conventional process, it is substantially time-consuming work to align the edges of the electronic circuit printed board units. Furthermore, to obtaining shipping information, the total number of boards is manually mounted and then the number thereof is written on a shipping list.
In addition, as shown in FIG. 3, the conventional way of management of information of installed equipment and/or facilities is performed by establishing a data base (f) for the shipping equipment information control by manually adding data formed in sheets (b)-(d) based upon informations of orders, designs, design modifications to total board number information of the electronic circuit printed board collected through the shipping list (a) output from an inspection station. Such operation requires a substantial work load.
As set forth above, the conventional process requires different installation designs for respective customers and for respective orders. In addition, management of production of electronic equipments for which the management of delivery history is required, has been performed independently at respective stations causing a substantial work load. Furthermore, since each station performs an operation unrelated to other stations, a firm co-relation between the stations does not exist thereby causing problems in controlling the quality of information from delivered equipment histories.
In another way, as shown in FIG. 4, an equipment derivation chart (c') is prepared by performing derivation (b') for an estimate and equipment depending upon customer conditions (a'), such as communication traffic condition, terminal layout condition, power supply condition, line capacity condition and so forth. Using the derived equipment information, a designing operation is performed manually with designing know-how (in a form of designer's knowledge and/or written instructions). Initially, a floor layout d' is designed to obtain a drawing showing floor layout (arrangement of frames on the floor) as shown by encircled FIG. 1. Then, an arrangement design (e') for the equipment frame is performed to obtain an arrangement of shelves as shown by encircled FIG. 2. Finally, an electronic unit arrangement design f' is performed to obtain an arrangement of drawings as shown by the encircled FIG. 3 for the arrangement of the electronic circuit units.
In the latter process, a designing process for equipment installation drawings (g) for determining the installation arrangement of electronic circuit printed boards is substantially the same as that illustrated in FIG. 1 but differs in the following points.
First of all, in view of the conditions for installation of the equipment, equipment installation design (f) for a specific customer is manually performed. At this time, confirmation of parts lists with respect to drawing number information on the order, a comparative check of the installation drawings and equipment installation drawings for checking installation position, a check of the installation width of the printed board unit and so forth, limitation on cable lines and a check of the installation position, for the same check conditions as those of FIG. 1, are performed (h). As a result, respective equipment installation drawings (g) for a customer, for construction and for installation are prepared.
Next, the conventional process for designing the constructed related drawings will be discussed with reference to FIG. 6. A reference is made to the construction and construction work manuals (Ka), drawings (equipment installation drawings, connecting condition drawings, construction information and so forth) (Kb) provided from a design center, know-how information (Kc) for construction designing, conditions for construction work design and design information (Kd), as input information. In the construction designing center, equipment installation design (Ke) for a specific customer is performed manually. During this process, preparation of drawings adapting to in-site installation of the equipment based on the designing drawings, designing of connecting cables and so forth on the basis of the connecting condition, designing and preparation for constructional equipment on the basis of an arrangement of the equipment are performed (Kf). By this process, the drawings for construction (Kg) are prepared.
As set forth above, in the prior art, if an order-made design for a specific client, is required, necessary operations including a calculation for a number of equipments to be prepared to comply with the customer's order, and for designing equipment installation, and construction design are performed manually. Therefore, it requires a substantial labor work load. In addition, because of manual work, there is the possibility of human error resulting in poor design quality.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a management system that allows concentrated management for a process for equipment installation designing for respective customers and respective orders concerning production, inspection and shifting and thus allows a concentration of information throughout the process.